Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C.,
September 20, 2012 -
The House Natural Resources Committee today released a report detailing information uncovered in its more than 18-month ongoing investigation into the Obama Administration’s rewrite of a coal production regulation, the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule. The report, entitled “President Obama's Covert and Unorthodox Efforts to Impose New Regulation on Coal Mining and Destroy American Jobs,” details the Administration’s rushed and unorthodox rulemaking process; the job and economic impacts of its proposed regulation; its attempts to change the numbers to hide the true economic impacts; and the Administration’s continual efforts to obstruct Congressional oversight.

The report concludes that, “The Obama Administration’s campaign to impose this rewritten regulation must be halted and an open, transparent rulemaking that fairly accounts for job and economic impacts must be undertaken.”

“It’s clear the Obama Administration’s efforts to implement this job-destroying coal regulation must be stopped,”said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Hastings.“As highlighted in this report, over 7,000 mining jobs and the economic livelihoods of communities throughout the country are at risk if the Obama Administration imposes this regulation. Millions of taxpayer dollars have already been spent and it would be a further waste of taxpayer dollars to continue with this rulemaking process that was flawed from the very beginning. The Administration has gone to great lengths to withhold information from the public, is refusing to comply with Congressionally issued subpoenas and now won’t even comment on the current status of the rewrite. It’s up to Congress to stop the Obama Administration from imposing this sweeping new regulation that will destroy jobs, decrease American energy production, increase energy prices and harm our economy.”

This week, the House will consider H.R. 3409, the Stop the War on Coal Act. Included in this package is legislation authored by Rep. Bill Johnson (OH-03) that would place a prohibition on the Secretary of the Interior from issuing this regulation.